Menu of Ideas / Other Ideas

Here are a few low-cost / no-cost ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

• Businesses and Business Organizations
  
• Correctional Agencies
  
• Individuals
  
• Media
  
• Parents’ Service Providers
  
• Marketing Ideas
  
• Public Gatherings
  
• National-State-Tribes-Local Level Partnerships
• Teen Parents

 

Businesses and Business Organizations

Collaborating with organizations of business leaders, such as local Chambers of Commerce and Rotary Clubs, would serve two purposes:

• It would educate a wide swath of employers about how child support works, and the importance of child support withholdings.
• It would raise parents’ awareness of child support services.

You could also work with an individual business. Joint publicity efforts would benefit your cause and raise the business’ profile with potential customers. Ones that serve families and children would be good choices. Strong candidates include the following:

• Maternity stores.
• Baby stores.
  
• Toy stores.
  
• Children’s clothing stores.
  
• Day care centers.
  
• Pediatrician’s offices.

Or ask businesses that meet daily needs:

• Hispanic grocery stores.
  
• Laundromats.

When approaching a business, explain that child support is critical to the quality of life for some children in your area. Highlight the need for your office’s services, and give real-life stories (using pseudonyms, of course) of people whose lives have improved because of child support. Explain that helping promote your cause will provide good publicity for the business—and will enable the business to make a positive contribution to society.

Correctional Agencies

Collaborate with correctional facilities to educate imprisoned parents. You could develop a curriculum that not only teaches these parents about the child support enforcement system—and the importance of making regular payments once released—but also explains in detail the reason the child support program exists.

Classes can describe the…

• Strength of the bond a child feels with his or her parents.
  
• Joy of caring for a son or daughter.
  
• Research that shows how important having both parents is to a child’s development.
  
• Child’s desperate need for funds that will provide food, clothing, housing, and medical care.

Individuals

• Hola 101 with Spanish-Speaking Community Members: Engage a member of the community to teach you a few words in Spanish. If you know simple greetings and use them with Spanish-speaking clients, you will do this:
  
  • Assuage their fears.
    
  • Assure them that you are humble, respectful of their culture, and genuinely interested in helping them.

Find someone with whom you have a rapport, and invite him or her to lunch or coffee. Explain that you would like to be able to serve the community better.

• Your Clients and Prospects: Make sure that your clients and prospects feel you are their trusted associate by keeping in touch with them on a regular basis. Emphasize warmth in every interaction. The personal touch can be very powerful. Simply knowing that you are thinking of them can encourage your clients and prospects to seek the help they need.
  
  • Handwrite a note or call to thank people for stopping by the office.
    
  • Call them to touch base if you have not spoken with them for a while.
    
  • Refer your clients to nonprofit organizations that may be able to meet their other needs.
    
  • Create an informal resource directory to help them. It can be a bilingual flyer that lists location of thrift shops, swap meets, etc.

Media

• Special Event with Media: Hold an event that brings together child support officers and media, so that each can learn how the other can be of help. A breakfast on a weekday morning or an after-work reception could feature a panel of child support agency staff, experts in child support issues, and key media personalities in your area.

The panel discussion could focus on what kind of news and feature story ideas child support staff have to offer, what reporters are looking for in a story, and how reporters prefer to be contacted by and work with their sources.

You can invite reporters and editors from local TV or radio stations or newspapers, plus media relations or public affairs specialists who handle child support issues. The event could be called “Making Child Support News” or something similar. Allow networking time before or after the event so that media and child support professionals can meet and mingle.

Ask your public affairs officer for other ideas.

• TV Sponsorships: Similar to an upscale PowerPoint presentation, these 10-second sponsorships would include graphics zipping by and a voiceover. They could run before news, weather, or sports reports.

They are effective because they can tug on the heartstrings of moms and dads.

Child support enforcement offices in different localities can share creative ideas for a sponsorship ad. All you would need to do is to send the ad to your TV station and ask them to add the local phone number. Explain that your ad is for a good cause—it’s to help encourage parents to pay the child support their children so desperately need—and ask the station if it will run the ad for free.

Or you could ask businesses to co-sponsor these ads, bringing needed funding to the child support office and needed publicity to the business. Viewers would see, for example, “This message brought to you by your Child Support Enforcement office and Bob’s Hardware.” These ads could run in English and Spanish.

Parents’ Service Providers

Anywhere that parents are is a good place to post materials that highlight the importance of child support. A simple collaboration that involves reciprocal sharing of material with clients can raise awareness of child support services, and of your ally’s cause.

However, you may be able to create a more committed collaboration that yields better results. Here are some ideas for collaborating with the professionals that single parents may see on a regular basis:

• Job Placement and Training Specialists: Work with these specialists, and you can more easily connect noncustodial parents with jobs that enable them to pay their obligations. A mutual referral system would work well.

In addition, you could join forces to host a job fair and invite area employers. For attendees, you could hand out materials on the importance of paying child support. Employers could receive information on how income withholding works—and how it can greatly improve a child’s quality of life.

• Computer Classes: Research has shown that lack of familiarity with computers keeps many low-income Hispanics from being offered higher-paying jobs.

Joining forces with an organization that offers computer training—be it a school, library, nonprofit, or private company—would be a good way both to spread the word about child support services and to give noncustodial parents the skills they need to become gainfully employed.

• ESL Classes: English as a Second Language (ESL) classes would be a good place to promote child support services.
• Lawyers: Align yourself with a lawyer who handles family law issues, and you can ask that person to refer all potential child support clients directly to your agency for assistance. In return, you can send to the lawyer any of your clients who need assistance with legal issues.
• Child Care Professionals and Teachers: Because these professionals see the children on a regular basis, they are in a special position to know what the child needs. They also may have the custodial parent’s trust and may be able to influence that parent.

As such, a collaboration with an educational component might suit your purposes. Try holding an after-work or weekend event for child care professionals. You could give a short seminar that shares the essentials of child support—how it works, why it matters, why parents are safe from concerns about privacy and how to talk to parents about child support. Offer refreshments, if allowed, and a meet-and-greet so that child support staff can begin to establish trust with these professionals. Include handouts on child support—either brochures or more discreet business cards—that these professionals could share with parents.

Serving as a guest speaker at a Head Start or Parent Teacher Association meeting is another low-cost, effective way to spread your message to the people who may need to hear it the most.

You could give a primer on how child support works, how it helps the child, and why the involvement of both parents helps a child to thrive.

When proposing the speaking engagement, explain that while child support can greatly improve a child’s life, members of the Hispanic community may not trust a child support agency that is associated with the government, and as such, may not seek help. Tell them that you are seeking a speaking engagement at their meeting because they have the parents’ trust, and that your message will fall on more receptive ears if they are involved.

• Healthcare Professionals: Doctors, pediatricians, dentists, eye doctors, nurse practitioners, and more—these people are respected, and they have one-on-one contact with others who may need your services. Discussions on health can naturally lead to discussions about child support—do the parents have the resources they need to keep themselves and their children healthy?

Quick, 30-minute educational seminars for busy healthcare professionals can highlight the connection between child support and health. You could create a theme such as “3 Keys for Better Health” and give healthcare professionals three questions they could ask to assess their patients’ need for a referral to child support. These three questions could appear on a wallet-sized card professionals could keep with them for reference.

You also could create a child support poster for waiting room and examining room walls. And of course you could refer your own clients who need medical help to those healthcare professionals.

Marketing Ideas

• Alternate Business Card: Create alternate business cards that function as ads. For example, the back of the card could say, “Your child deserves support. Call us today.” You could also create a card that includes only your name, title, and contact information. This card may seem more personal—and less threatening to people who are afraid to seek child support—than a formal, official-looking government card.
• Doorknob Hangers: Similar to the pizza offers that frequently appear on the doors of apartments and houses, these hangers could succinctly describe the benefits of child support services and interest people in calling to learn more. Printing costs would be low, and you could use volunteers to distribute them.
• Endorsements / Testimonials: Ask your happy customers to encourage others to use your services. Request that they tell you, in their own words, why they believe in child support and what they would say to someone who is unsure about whether to apply for it.

A first-person story from someone in the community can show that others trust your organization. With the Hispanic community’s strong sense of family, testimonials can also make people feel that others in the community would support their decision to seek child support services.

How to Ask for the Endorsement

• Choose people (two to three) who have seen a vast difference in their situation since seeking child support services and are strong proponents of your organization. Credible and personable people are best. Community leaders are ideal.
  
• Position your request for a testimonial as something that would help the community. Explain that many community members are not aware of child support services, and that others would like to seek child support but are afraid.
  
• Either interview the people yourself or ask them to write a short paragraph or two about why they believe in child support. You can either use all of the writing or excerpt a sentence or two, depending on how much space you have available. Keep it short and sweet—present only the most compelling points.
  
• Photography will attract attention and increase the level of trust in the testimonial. If your endorser agrees that you may use a photograph, take one. Be sure to have the person sign a liability release saying that you have permission to use his or her likeness in marketing materials. If he or she does not want to include a photograph, the words alone will still be effective.

You can print them in these or similar formats:


• Flyers.
  
• Small posters, for windows.
  
• Bumper stickers.

Put them in creative places, such as these:


• Your office—on your walls, windows, or receptionist’s desk.
  
• Your proposals for collaborations and funding.
  
• Your letters to prospects.
  
• Your letters to clients, especially new clients who may be second guessing their decision to seek child support.
  
• Your partner organization’s offices.
  
• Swap meets.
  
• Neighborhood shops and community organizations.
  
• Churches.
  
• Laundromats.
  
• Latino grocery stores.

See if you can get them placed for free, or for a low cost in…


• Local coupon books.
  
• Local newspapers.
  
• Buses.
  
• Bus shelters.

You can also post the photos and quotes, with permission, on your Web site.

Another option is to work with a celebrity to endorse your efforts.

• Inserts in Bills: Join forces with your local utility or phone company to ask if you can insert materials in the company’s bills. The inserts could be one-pagers or the size of the envelope.

To request these inserts, contact the company’s marketing or outreach coordinator. Explain that child support is critical to the quality of life for some children in your area. Highlight the need for your office’s services, and give real-life stories (using pseudonyms, of course) of people whose lives have improved because of child support. Explain that helping promote your cause will provide good publicity for the business—and will enable the business to make a positive contribution to society.

• Tchotchkes: People love to get gifts, and tchotchkes imprinted with your office’s name—and tag line, if there’s room—can create ongoing awareness of your services. To pay for these, find a partner:
  
  • A company that makes tchotchkes.
    
  • A business that wants to spread its name, too.

The items can be anything that you think your audience would like. Here are some possibilities:


• Pens and pencils.
  
• Baby toys or stuffed animals, possibly with the slogan “Both my parents love me.”
  
• Umbrellas.
  
• Mugs.

Make people feel welcome by giving them out at your offices, trade shows, fairs, and the like.

Public Gatherings

• Community Child Support Gatherings: Informal gatherings of people who are considering using child support services may give a boost to those who are reluctant to seek help. These put parents at ease because they take place in the comfort of someone’s home, in the company of other parents. Parents who had success with child support could lead these groups.
  
  • For Mothers: A comadres party could include appetizers, drinks, and a short presentation by a parent who champions child support, followed by a group discussion. The term comadre means “co-mother,” and evokes a special, close relationship between women.
    
  • For Fathers: A compadres party could pave the way for male bonding and involve an event in an establishment with a separate room.
• Town Hall Meetings: These let people in the community hear from child support enforcement officers, meet them face to face in a supportive environment, and discuss child support issues with other members of the community.

A town hall meeting could bring together various speakers who could explain the importance of child support and describe their own role in enabling child support. Examples follow:


• Police.
  
• Judges.
  
• Local elected officials.
  
• Community leaders.
  
• Local business owners.
  
• Local employers.
  
• Child support advocates.
  
• Parents who have benefited from child support.

Bear in mind that the event should come off as friendly. Ensure that child support enforcement staff and all other speakers appear supportive and welcoming so that community members will feel at ease.

National-State-Tribes-Local Level Partnerships

Several States have collaborated with their motor vehicle departments to suspend drivers’ licenses for those who do not pay their child support obligations. Professional, occupational, and even hunting and fishing licenses could also be subject to revocation. For Tribes, this could include hunting, fishing, and gaming licenses.

Teen Parents

Position yourself as a trusted partner for teen parents, as well.


• Create youthful, appealing Web banners. Place them on your site, and ask the webmaster of teen-friendly sites if you can post them on their sites as well.
  
• Contact local high schools to see if they would like to use lesson plans on child support for their social studies, economics, and health education classes. Then create lesson plans that describe the basics of child support. Include the importance of establishing paternity at the hospital and of both parents taking an active role in raising the child.